Blellow launched at SxSWi in March of 2009. In its first two months it had grown a community of over 6,200 members which is continuing to grow daily.The creators of Blellow call the site a productivity microblog with a mission to encourage open collaboration about the sharing of knowledge. This site offers many topics and chat rooms that enable employees and potential employees to communicate in a way that they may not be able to in person. Also this site gives students and everyday people the opportunity to put pieces of work online in hopes of having them picked up by a company or another person. There are various tabs on the Blellow site that enable anyone to navigate through the site. Along with the job possibilities that Blellow brings to the table it also allows for a lot of social interaction. Many people use Blellow in order to inspire them on work they have started or about to start. Once a creator thinks his or her work is done they can put it on the site and get immediate feedback from other members of that particular group or chat room they posted it in. Blellow is a great way to open a door to a possible job opportunity. This site is used for many different things and creates a great atmosphere for members of the working environment.

Blellow is a San Antonio based bootstrapped start-up. Their mission is to encourage open collaboration and the sharing of knowledge. They base this mission on three principles:

The idea that the sharing of knowledge can and will empower others to do better forms the basis for the ideology on which Blellow was built. The creators believe that while there are many tools for learning, our best resources are each other.

Blellow believes that when you offer a problem to a group of minds sharing knowledge, perception opens up discussion and perspective offers up solutions. In this environment, problems cease to be problems, and instead become a challenge for the group, an exercise in collaboration that asks everyone to contribute, and ultimately produces the best possible solution.And the journey to that solution, while the goal is to answer one question, will inspire new thoughts and new questions. It is this perpetual cycle of problems, thought, solution that lays the groundwork for ingenuity, creativity, and discovery.

Ideas can never reach their full potential if they cannot be heard. While Blellow hopes to promote the free flow of ideas, they also believe that giving their members the ability to quickly target their questions to receive effective and efficient answers, leads to better productivity. It will be their goal to give their members the tools that allow them to see and hear the ideas they need and filter out the rest.

It is fairly easy to sign up for a blellow account. All you need to do is go to the create an account on the home page. You will have to give a user name, an email address, and a password which you will be asked to type in again for conformation. It would be suggested to you that you read the Terms of Service agreement before you check the box to know exactly what terms are expected of you while being a member of this website. Before you can successfully login to start setting up your blellow account you will have to go to your email account and confirm that you have sent a request to be a blellow member. After you have successfully confirmed your request you can search for friends on your twitter, gmail, yahoo, hotmail,……etc. accounts. you can choose to skip this and just start blogging on your new blellow account.

*Blellow’s operating system is based on the principles of Collaborate, Find Work, and Solve Problems. The basic idea behind blellow is that you as a potential employee post or describe what you are working on, having a problem with, or any help that you may need on a particular project. The other members of the blellow community will then respond and try there best in order to help you move forward in your development. It uses the problems in every day work-life in order to build relationships with other people or companies in the same field of interest as you.*

-Users are able to give out kudos to people who have helped them with their problems. Kudos is how people build credibility on Blellow. The only problem is that you are only able to give out one Kudos per question asked, so if multiple people respond you have to choose who has helped you the most.

-Businesses from all over the world, not just the U.S., have access to this site and are able to post jobs to it.

-The site allows you to look for both full-time and freelance work.

-Blellow groups allow users within the Blellow community to focus their conversations around a specific subject and to connect with others who have the same interests. If a user cannot find the group that he/she desires, then that user has the ability to create that specific group of interest. Some of these groups include: Apple Love, Illustrators, Career Advice, Education and many more.

1. Give students a few problems either before the end of class or leave them apost on the website of their assignment.2. Allow students to work with one another on the assignment during the night3. Monitor the board to make sure students are engaging with each other andthat if they need further assistance that someone is there to help them.4. The next day in class review the questions to see if the students haveacquired the knowledge that is necessary to go on to the next lesson

National Standards

5.7.1 Analyze problems by identifying relationships, telling relevant fromirrelevant information, sequencing and prioritizing information, observingpatterns.5.7.2 Decide when and how to break a problem into simpler parts.5.7.3 Apply strategies and results from simpler problems to solve morecomplex problems.5.7.5 Recognize the relative advantages of exact and approximate solutions toproblems and give answers to a specific degree of accuracy.5.7.6 Know and apply appropriate methods for estimating results of rational-number computations.5.7.8 Decide whether a solution is reasonable in the context of the originalsituation.5.7.9 Note the method of finding the solutions and show a conceptualunderstanding for the method by solving similar problems.

Allow students to try their hand at using the groups section of Blellow

Objective

Have students join a group on Blellow with their classmates so that they can explore a blogging website.

Materials

·computer with internet access· scanner or art program on computer

Procedure

1. Students will be asked to create a Blellow account if they do not already have one. 2. They will then join a previously created group on Blellow so that all students will be in contact with one another.3. They will then traverse the Blellow site and report back to their group what they have learned about communication and information technology

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Students will post their resume on Blellow to see if they are given any job offers.

Objective

Students will learn how to use Blellow to network and market themselves in the job field.

Materials

· Blellow account· Computer with internet access· Up-to-date resume

Procedure

1. Have students, if they haven't already, type up a resume.2. Have students create a Blellow account.3. Students will post their resume on the Blellow website4. Students will watch their resume and see if they get any job offers.

Blellow was actually created more for business and industry uses. If you click on the "Jobs" tab at the top, there are sub tabs for All, Full-time, and Freelance job openings. Within these three areas there are six categories to easily navigate to the specific job a user is looking for. Blellow users can then see the location of the job, position, company and job type. Just as users can search for a job, business' can post a job opening on Blellow. It is easy to see how Blellow can be a very good way to get into contact with future employers and/or employees!

With any application, comes competition. Blellow's competitor is a Korean application called me2Day. me2Day is a social networking site used for daily communication. The layout is very simple, which is attractive to many potential users. The layout can be compared to that of Facebook, which many people are familiar with in this day and age. Blellow is social networking for professionals, where they can receive feedback and where work can be critiqued. Potential employers can also look at their work. Blellow can be used for teachers and other professionals to work together and share ideas. me2Day is a site where others can share ideas, but they may or may not be professional.

After years of freelancing and working remotely in a professional capacity, Mandi has become acutely aware of the challenges that freelancers and entrepreneurs face. This insight has prompted her to embark on her newest venture: Blellow.com. Blellow allows freelancers and entrepreneurs to collaborate, find work, and solve problems through a friendly, familiar microblog interface by answering the question: “What are you working on?”

Michael interacts extensively with client brand managers, and doesn’t hesitate to do whatever is needed to make sure a project gets done, including quality assurance testing, editing and coding. And, if necessary, plenty of handholding.If he appears to analyze your project with the clear eyes of a scientist, it’s because he holds an M.S. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Texas Health Science Center.

Andy is a software developer with a background in business web applications and a current focus on web services and applications designed for interactivity with Second Life and other virtual worlds.

Veronica brings over twelve years of administrative support experience with her. Veronica is an entrepreneur in her own right, as founder and owner of an online endeavor called “The Sensible Gourmet”. Veronica is not only the administrative backbone for the daily company business, but is also a very talented briefer and company spokesperson and can juggle multiple projects at once, while simultaneously keeping the rest of us on track with a mere wave of her hand.

Jane is the designer, art director and project manager for blellow. She is self-employed and resides in San Antonio, TX. She brings much experience for blellow as she has dedicated much of her life to some form of media.

We believe that when you offer a problem to a group of minds sharing knowledge, perception opens up discussion and perspective offers up solutions. In this environment, problems cease to be problems, and instead become a challenge for the group, an exercise in collaboration that asks everyone to contribute, and ultimately produces the best possible solution. Advanced Math and Blellow (S.T.E.M)

And the journey to that solution, while the goal is to answer one question, will inspire new thoughts and new questions. It is this perpetual cycle of problems, thought, solution that lays the groundwork for ingenuity, creativity, and discovery.